# Anyway to emulate a Windows 3.11 environment for games of that era? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [July 30, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831 "2023-07-30T17:13:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/1 "2023-07-30T17:13:38Z")
There is an old game from 1994 I still have the CD for. **Gazillionaire**. It won’t play under Windows 11 compatibility though I know it played under Win 9x back in the 90s. **DosBox** can’t do the job as no Windows environment. Any safe Win 3.11 emulators? * * * . * * * **STEAM is not a viable option.** ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/2 "2023-07-30T17:24:54Z")
Do you have a set of Windows 3 disks or images? If so, or if you can download them from the net, you can install windows 3.11 in a VM. See: [https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=102121](https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=102121) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/3 "2023-07-30T17:29:55Z")
My Win 3.11 disks are gone. Probably about 2016 or so. But the Virtual Box looks like it might be fun to try. ---
**Author:** ![blienmeis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@blienmeis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blienmeis)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/4 "2023-07-30T17:30:56Z")
The WinWorld Library is a great resource for windows disk images. [WinWorld: Library (winworldpc.com)](https://winworldpc.com/library/operating-systems) If you don’t want to use a VM there is winevdm which more or less let’s you run 16 bit windows programs in modern windows. It’s not perfect though. [GitHub - otya128/winevdm: 16-bit Windows (Windows 1.x, 2.x, 3.0, 3.1, etc.) on 64-bit Windows](https://github.com/otya128/winevdm) ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/5 "2023-07-30T19:24:30Z")
Yeah, I tend to use VirtualBox and run a machine of the era I need when I can’t make things work on a modern OS. There is a specialized piece of software I used to use for my old employer that didn’t work on anything newer than W2K, and the tools provided by the original company to upgrade to their latest & questionably greatest software tended to break stuff and lose important survey/satellite info (old GPS data). Running a VM with W2K handled all of my needs! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/6 "2023-07-31T10:40:12Z")
I’d actually recommend using DOSBox rather than VirtualBox–along with the Windows 3.1 files disk images linked above. (That way you don’t need to also get DOS working, nor mess with virtualization.) Here’s a guide that includes all the drivers. > **[How to Install Windows 3.1 in DOSBox, Set Up Drivers, and Play 16-bit Games](https://www.howtogeek.com/230359/how-to-install-windows-3.1-in-dosbox-set-up-drivers-and-play-16-bit-games/)** > > Install Windows 3. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/7 "2023-07-31T12:17:02Z")
You can use something like [Microsoft Windows 3.10 | PCjs Machines](https://www.pcjs.org/software/pcx86/sys/windows/3.10/) and run it in your browser. Make an iso image of your CD, and you can even load it into the environment. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/8 "2023-07-31T12:59:35Z")
How do you create the ISO image in Win 11? _I haven’t done an ISO image since Win 7 and I had detailed instruction for that._ ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-emulate-a-windows-3-11-environment-for-games-of-that-era/987831/9 "2023-08-06T19:49:32Z")
Side question: If I have an originally-wrapped copy of Windows 3.11 (which I do), can I just get the disk images from elsewhere and install them in Dosbox (which I did)?